Electrical brush support



Nov. 7, 1967- R.' M'. CHAVENEAUD 3,351,727

ELECTRIGALBRUSH SUPPORT Filed June 13, l966 United States Patent Claims. (or. 200-166) g ABSTRACT on THE DISCLOSURE This invention is directed to a device for articulately mounting an electrical brush for movement relative to electrical contacts. The device includes a rotatable member having an aperture in which is guidingly housed an electrical brush. An arm carried by the rotatable member has a terminal end portion in line-contacting engagement with an upper end portion of the brush. A notch in the brush opens toward and is in linear engagement with a blade-like edge of the arm thereby establishing a line of contact parallel to the generatrix of the notch about which the brush is free to rock as well as slide along a line generally normal to the line of contact.

.mounting carbons comprises a holder or wiper arm in FIGURE 4 is a view similar to FIGURE 3 showing a carbon brush element having a triangular notch, and

FIGURE 5 is a plan view of a rotary holder device for carrying a plurality of carbons.

The rotary brush holder illustrated in FIGURES 1 and V 2 is composed of a flanged collar 1, the flanged portion 1' of which is provided with a radial projection 2 in which is a slot or mortise 6, the collar being secured to a drive shaft 3 by a key 7 engaging a groove 8 in the shaft.

In this embodiment the collar 1 is of polyamide or other synthetic material capable of beingmachined or moulded so as to enable a finger 4 to be formed integrally therewith and which is of good elasticity.

which is a slot to accommodate the carbon, theholder having a finger, the free endof which extends into the slot in order to bear against the carbon when introduced into the latter, the upper face of the carbon preferably having a notch in which the tip of the finger engages.

The carbon holder may be formed of metal, a metal alloy, or of synthetic material preferably having an inherent elasticity making is possible to form the finger directly by machining from or casting integrally with said carbon holder.

The carbon holder may be in the form of a rotor element mounted on a rotating drive shaft or consist of a sliding member moving along a rectilinear or curved guide means.

The rotor element may be provided with a series of slots disposed radially and each surmounted by an elastic finger having a triangular tongue for engagement with an associated carbon, thus permitting the positioning in said element of a number of carbons forming between themselves equal or unequal angles to establish contacts simultaneously or spaced apart in time in accordance With a determined programme. a

'On the end of the finger 4 is a downwardly directed tongue 5 which projects into the slot 6 made or formed in the flange 1' of the collar, as shown more clearly in FIGURE 2, where it engages a carbon brush element 9.

Instead of securing the collar 1 to its drive shaft 3 by means of a key 7, it is obvious that other conventional means can be used, such as splines, pointed screws, and so on. Alternatively, the collar may be loose on the shaft 3 and'driven by a toothed pinion solid to it.

The slot '6 is of a size to accommodate and guide a carbon 9 having the shape of a right-angle parallelepiped and in one face of which is 'a notch which is' preferably semi-cylindrical in shape, as shown at) in FIGURE 3, the tongue 5 being adapted to engage in the notch 10 in orderto hold the carbon in position in the slot by applying adequate pressure to it in order to apply it against two conductor rings 11 and 12 as shown in FIGURE 2.

The notch in the carbon 9 may be of triangular shape as indicated at 10 in FIGURE 4, but the angle formed by its two faces must be much largerthan that formed between the two inclined faces of the tongue 5 of the finger 4. I v I Whatever the shape ofthenotch constructed in accordance with FIGURES 3 or 4, the carbon 9 will be capable of angular disp'lacement and thus oscillatory movement relative to the edge of the prismatic shaped tongue 5, the latter constituting a balance beam or knife edge which bears on it in order to provide good contact with the contact with the conductors 11 and 12.

It will be understood that the carbon can wear regularly during the operation of the rotor thus constitued, because the pressure of the carbon on the parts 11 and 12 remains constantly balanced.

The carbon brush holder of this invention may ob- 1 viously be used in cases where the carbon makes con tact with only one conductor piece. In this case it may be provided with a conductor wire carried by the collar 1 or connected to said wire by any other conventional means.

It is possible to utilise a metal or metal alloy instead of a polyamide material for making the holder 1 and/ or its finger 4 in order to allow the electric current to pass to the carbon through the holder as a whole or along the The invention is described below with reference to the finger.

The tongue 4 may be formed separately from the collar 1 and be fixed to the latter by any conventional means,

in which case it may be of different material from that the ring.

The applications of the method of mounting carbons as described above are extremely numerous, because they may relate to the manufacture of any electrical components containing parts requiring mobile contact to be made between them.

In order to comply vwith certain applications, for example commutation devices eflecting programming or having to supply information in accordance with regular cycles or cycles which can be modified at will, it is possible to construct elements incorporating a plurality of slots or mortises 6, as illustrated in FIGURE 5.

In FIGURE the carbon holder is constituted by a disc 13 having a central core 14 keyed to a drive shaft 15. The disc 13 is provided with eight slots 6 in which engage the ends of an equal number of elastic fingers 4 solid to the core 14. Obviously the number of slots 6 may be varied at will and the slots may be spaced regularly or otherwise. It will be understood that rotor element of this type makes it possible to position on it a determined number of carbons 9 spaced apart by one or more fractions of circumference. A change in position of the carbons may be effected without difficulty because it is sufiicient to insert them into the appropriate mortises beneath the tongues 4.

It will be realised immediately that a considerable number of combined commutations can be effected by providing an appropriate number of slots in a rotary element driven for example, by toothed pinions. An arrangement of this type makes it possible to carry out the most varied programmes.

What is claimed is:

1. A device for articulately mounting a brush for movement relative to electrical contact means comprising a rotatable member having aperture means in which is guidingly housed an electrical brush, an arm carried by said member having a terminal end portion in line-contacting engagement with an upper end portion of said brush, said terminal end portion and brush end portion including cooperative means for effecting free rocking movement of said brush about the line of contact between the brush and the terminal end portion as well as free linear movement of said brush in a direction generally normal to the line of contact, said cooperative means being a notch formed in one of said end portions opening toward and in linear engagement with a bladelike edge of the other of said end portions, and the line of contact between said blade-like edge and the generatrix of said notch being in generally parallel relationship.

2. The device as defined in claim 1 wherein said arm is constructed of resilient material and continuously biases said terminal end portion into contacting engagement with said brush end portion.

3. The device as defined in claim 1 wherein said arm is constructed of resilient metallic material and continually biases said terminal end portion into contacting engagement with said brush end portion.

4. The device as defined in claim 1 wherein said arm is constructed of resilient metallic-alloy material and continually biases said terminal end portion into contacting engagement with said brush end portion.

5. The device as defined in claim 1 including a rotatable shaft, and means fixedly securing said rotatable member to said rotatable shaft.

6. The device as defined in claim 1 including a plurality of additional identical brushes, aperture means, arms and cooperative means, a brush of said plurality of brushes being guidingly housed in an associated one of said plurality of aperture means, said arms are carried by said member and each of said arms includes a terminal end portion in line-contacting engagement with an upper end portion of an associated one of said plurality of brushes, and said last-mentioned cooperative means being a notch formed in an end portion of each of the plurality of brushes opening toward and in linear engagement with a blade-like edge of an end portion of each of the plurality of arms.

7. The device as defined in claim 1 wherein said notch is formed in the brush end portion and the blade-like edge is defined by the terminal end portion of said arm.

8. The device as defined in claim 1 wherein said notch and blade-like edge are each of a generally V-shaped con figuration, and the included angle of said notch is greater than the included angle of said blade-like edge.

9. The device as defined in claim 4 wherein said rotatable member and said arm are of a one-piece integral construction.

10. The device-as defined in claim 9 wherein said notch and said blade-like edge are each of a generally V-shaped configuration, said rotatable member includes a disc-like portion, and said aperture means is a radially disposed slot formed in said disc-like portion.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,658,677 2/1928 Hanna 200-166 3,022,389 2/1962 Wolrab 200-49 3,147,359 9/1954 Hanna 200166 ROBERT S. MACON, Primary Examiner.

ROBERT K. SCHAEFER, Examiner.

H. O. JONES, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A DEVICE FOR ARTICULATELY MOUNTING A BRUSH FOR MOVEMENT RELATIVE TO ELECTRICAL CONTACT MEANS COMPRISING A ROTATABLE MEMBER HAVING APERTURE MEANS IN WHICH IS GUIDINGLY HOUSED AN ELECTRICAL BRUSH, AND ARM CARRIED BY SAID MEMBER HAVING A TERMINAL END PORTION IN LINE-CONTACTING ENGAGEMENT WITH AN UPPER END PORTION OF SAID BRUSH, SAID TERMINAL END PORTION AND BRUSH END PORTION INCLUDING COOPERATIVE MEANS FOR EFFECTING FREE ROCKING MOVEMENT OF SAID BRUSH ABOUT THE LINE OF CONTACT BETWEEN THE BRUSH AND THE TERMINAL END PORTION AS WELL AS FREE LINEAR MOVEMENT OF SAID BRUSH IN A DIRECTION GENERALLY NORMAL TO THE LINE OF CONTACT, SAID COOPERATIVE MEANS BEING A NOTCH FORMED IN ONE OF SAID END PORTIONS OPENING TOWARD AND IN LINEAR ENGAGEMENT WITH A BLADELIKE EDGE OF THE OTHER OF SAID END PORTIONS, AND THE LINE OF CONTACT BETWEEN SAID BLADE-LIKE EDGE AND THE GENERATRIX OF SAID NOTCH BEING IN GENERALLY PARALLEL RELATIONSHIP. 